Laughing Stalk is a weekly newspaper humor column about current events and personal observations. It's published in ten weekly newspapers and the world's first online alt newspaper, The American Reporter.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS (Wednesday, June 27, 2012) - Push to pass will return to the IZOD IndyCar Series for the five remaining road/street course events on the 2012 schedule, beginning with the Honda Indy Toronto on July 6 – 8.

The overtake assist feature, introduced to the series in 2009, allows a driver to add turbocharger boost and additional RPM with the press of a button on the steering wheel to complete a pass.

"It will be similar to what it was in the past because we know that model worked," said Will Phillips, vice president of technology, INDYCAR.

The additional boost is added for a pre-determined amount of time which will be determined by INDYCAR depending on the circuit. The sanctioning body will also determine the total amount of time available, recharge time and any delay in the system prior to each activation, though the engine manufacturers may adjust the settings below the requirements to optimize their engine's performance.

Push to pass will not engage until a certain throttle position is reached and will disengage if the driver lifts or presses the button again.

As part of the introduction of push-to-pass, the base turbocharger boost level will decrease to 150 kPa. When the system is engaged, the boost increases to 160 kPa on the 2.2-liter V6 engines supplied by Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus.

Teams will have the opportunity to test the system during the event weekend on the streets of Exhibition Place before the Honda Indy Toronto.

###

Indy 500 fans may remember Push to Pass as being the little go-faster booster button the drivers had to give them a little more get-up-and-go during the race. Useful for passing the driver in front of you. I just wish I could get one for my own car.

It's also interesting to note that this won't be used on any more oval events. Of course, there's only one on September 15, but still it's pretty interesting. (Okay, it's really not.)

1 comment:

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I am accepting comments from people with Google accounts to cut down on spam. Spammers aren't likely to register. There's been some Chinese spammer who keeps leaving spam comments under different names, and I'm hoping this will deter him. Jerk.

Subscribe via email

About Erik Deckers

Professional writer, book author, marketing agency owner. Newspaper humor columnist since 2004. Co-author of 4 books on social media marketing and content marketing. Named the Kerouac House writer-in-residence for Spring 2016.